Last Night in Baseball: Pirates (Yes, The Pirates) Sweep O’s For 5th-Straight Win

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in Major League Baseball: Pirates win fifth-straight Are the Pirates good? It’s a little too early for that question, given it’s still the first week of April, but Pittsburgh has been good so far and that’s not nothing. The Pirates swept the visiting Orioles over the weekend, giving them five-straight victories and a 6-3 record on the season. Some of the newer Pirates did their part to show off, like free agent signing Ryan O’Hearn. O’Hearn has been mashing so far, batting .367/.459/.700 on the season, and drilled his third homer of the year on Sunday off of Orioles’ starter Chris Bassitt, a 402-foot shot on a 3-0 fastball that Bassitt left up in the zone. Konnor Griffin might not be new to the organization, but he did make his big-league debut on Friday in the Pirates’ home opener. The top prospect in the game and 2024 first-round pick didn’t get much hitting done in his first three games, but the shortstop reminded the crowd that he’s not just around for his bat. And then there is center fielder Oneil Cruz, who made some headlines on Opening Day for misplaying some balls, but he’s been making up for that with his bat since. Cruz crushed a 91-mph pitch inside off of reliever Cade Povich, 415 feet to straightaway center, to put Pittsburgh up 8-1 on Sunday. The Orioles would score a second run and no more, with starting pitcher Braxton Ashcraft going six innings with just one run allowed while striking out eight. The right-hander didn’t allow a walk and gave up just four hits, then the bullpen mostly shut Baltimore down the rest of the way for the W. Are the Orioles bad? It’s too early to answer that question, too, but a 3-6 start is not going to make an already uphill battle in the AL East any easier. White Sox sweep Blue Jays Luckily for the Orioles, they weren’t the only team from their division to struggle this weekend. The Blue Jays have now lost four in a row thanks to the White Sox hitting them with the three-game sweep. Yes, the White Sox, losers of 102 games a year ago, getting out the brooms for the defending American League champions. It’s early, yes, but those wins and losses are in the bank. Chicago won in extra innings on Friday in their home opener, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the 10th on a couple of singles and a throwing error to tie and walk it off. Then, on Saturday, the White Sox would win 6-3 following a three-run sixth inning that saw first baseman and NPB import Munetaka Murakami hit his fourth dinger of the season, which was followed by Colson Montgomery’s second long ball of the year. Chicago used an opener for an inning before giving the ball to Anthony Kay for 4.1 innings, and the group combined to hold the Jays to three runs. The pitching was even better for the White Sox on Sunday, as they blanked Toronto, 3-0. Righty Davis Martin threw six scoreless with six strikeouts and two walks, limiting the Blue Jays to four hits, and the bullpen shut Toronto down the rest of the way. Helping out the pitching staff was some quality defense, like this grab from Luisangel Acuna. The White Sox have won three in a row and four on the season, which doesn’t sound like all that much until you remember that Chicago won its fourth game last year on April 12, and in 2024 on April 26. At this rate the White Sox will win their fourth game of 2027 before they even play it. Jo Adell, take a bow You might have heard that Angels’ right fielder Jo Adell did something no one else has done since this info was tracked: on Saturday, he robbed three — three! — home runs in a single game. Even better, this ended up being a matchup that the Angels won 1-0 — Adell’s performance is the reason Los Angeles got the W at all. The first robbery was just a great catch to keep Mariners’ backstop Cal Raleigh from going yard in a 0-0 game. The second, though, came in the top of the eighth inning with the Angels up 1-0. The bases were empty with first baseman Josh Naylor at the plate, but Sam Bachman gave up what looked like it was going to go over the right field wall… until Adell was there to haul that one in, too. And then, in the ninth, with the Mariners trying to force extras or outright, reliever Jordan Romano came into the game to try to close the door on Seattle. He has been exceptionally homer-prone over the past two years, but apparently what he was missing was Adell out there to keep the ball from clearing the wall. Or, in the case of this catch, holding on to it even when it does clear the fence. What a grab. And what a day for Adell! The Angels would win, 1-0, and then for good measure downed the Mariners in 11 innings, 8-7, on Sunday to take the series, too. A Giancarlo Stanton… steal? Giancarlo Stanton is known for one thing. Well, two things: enormous muscles, and hitting home runs with those muscles. His legs? Other than maybe also the muscle thing, not so much. Stanton did what no one expected on Sunday, though, stealing his first base since 2020, and against his former team, the Marlins. That stolen base from 2020 was Stanton’s first since 2017, or, to put it another way, back when Stanton was still on the Marlins. It’s been awhile — given the rate he’s been working at, we might have seen the last steal of his career even if he ends up playing into his early 40s. Marlins big inning bests Yankees Unfortunately for the Yankees, you don’t get extra credit for the level of surprise a stolen base has. New York was up 4-2 on the Marlins through five innings, but then Miami narrowed that gap to a run in the sixth, before exploding for four more runs in the eighth. The inning started with DH Agustin Ramirez striking out, but then center fielder Jakob Marsee and shortstop Otto Lopez drew back-to-back walks against different pitchers. Griffin Conine came in to pinch-hit, and was hit by a pitch out of the hand of Jake Bird, loading the bases for another pinch-hitter, Graham Pauley. Pauley delivered on a double to right, scoring Marsee and Lopez to put Miami up 5-4. Ryan Yarbrough came on in relief of Bird, but things didn’t go any better for the lefty. He gave up a two-run single to the first batter he faced, second baseman Xavier Edwards, and then Edwards stole second. Yarbrough managed to get the next two batters, however, but the damage was done. New York would rally to put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the ninth against reliever Anthony Bender, but the Yankees needed three — Miami won the game to avoid the sweep, and stick in first place in the NL East in the process. A slip and a catch This probably would have been a routine catch if TJ Friedl didn’t slip, but the Reds’ left fielder failed to keep his footing. That ended up making it an impressive grab, though, since Friedl managed to control the rest of his body and stick with making the play despite the fact that he got all tripped up on the way to making it. No credit for slipping, sure, but for making sure the end result was the same? Friedl earned that one. It’s not spring everywhere There have been some high spring temperatures across the country in March and early April, but they were nowhere to be found in Minnesota on Saturday. And not only was it cold, but it was cold enough for snow! A beautiful bunt as is, but against the backdrop of snow? Baseball is something. The freezing cold weather didn’t impact the Rays at all, as they ended up winning 7-1. Hey, it’s not like the Twins are used to playing in the snow, either. Padres come back against Red Sox The Padres and Red Sox had a back-and-forth affair in the rubber game of their three-game set, with Boston going up early courtesy a four-run third inning, punctuated by this Masataka Yoshida RBI double. The Padres would answer right back, however: San Diego scored three runs in both the fourth and the fifth to go up 6-4, with center fielder Jackson Merrill and first baseman Nick Castellanos both hitting RBI singles before third baseman Manny Machado hit a 3-run blast into the Green Monster seats to give the Padres the lead. In the seventh, Yoshida had yet another big double, this time a two-run two-bagger to right, to tie the game up at 6-6. The tie was short-lived, however, as Merrill hit it where the camera couldn’t follow to left, over the monster, and the Padres were once again up. Right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. would add an insurance run via sac fly in the ninth, but it proved unnecessary, as closer Mason Miller was up to the task of sitting the Red Sox down. Miller not only struck out the side, but took them down in order, too. Miller got shortstop Trevor Story on three consecutive pitches, all sliders, then fooled both left fielder Jarren Duran and Miller’s own backstop, Freddy Fermin, with a slider that followed a 101-mph fastball. Fermin got the throw to first for the second K, though, and then first baseman Willson Contreras went down swinging, too, with Miller going 100, 101 and then back to the slider for the swing-and-miss. Dubon 1, Perdomo’s Glove 0 Mauricio Dubon broke Geraldo Perdomo’s glove with this shot to left field on Saturday, in a little bit of shortstop-vs.-shortstop action. Dubon hit it to short but elevated, and Perdomo dove, and had it go right through his glove to left. Not “through” as in Perdomo missed, but as in the ball straight-up went through the glove. Check that slow-motion replay. The Diamondbacks ended up winning, but Perdomo is down a glove. Poor glove. Rooker’s walk-off shot What a game between the Astros and Athletics in Sacramento on Sunday. The A’s ended up winning 12-10, but that doesn’t tell the half of it. It took until the fifth inning for either team to score, when DH Yordan Alvarez launched his fourth homer of the season to give the Astros a 2-0 lead. Right fielder Cam Smith would follow with an RBI single before the inning ended, but the A’s would then answer with five runs in the bottom of the frame, with DH Brent Rooker scoring a sac fly to give the Athletics a 5-3 lead. In the seventh, first baseman Christian Walker tied things back up 5-5 with a two-run shot off of reliever J.T. Ginn. Rooker would respond immediately, though, smashing the 100th home run of his career to put the A’s up 7-5. The back-and-forth would continue, with the two teams tied 9-9 in the ninth following a four-run eighth by Houston. It could have ended right in the bottom of the ninth as the A’s rallied, but second baseman Jose Altuve made sure that didn’t happen with this incredible play, in which he caught second baseman Jeff McNeil running home after bringing in a grounder off the bat of catcher Shea Langeliers. The Astros would then take the lead in the top of the 10th, on an RBI single by third baseman Carlos Correa, but Rooker would come to the rescue once more. With two on in the bottom of the 10th, Rooker smashed another dinger, this one a walk-off shot. The A’s won the series, and while it hasn’t been a great start to the season for them, taking two of three from a division rival — and via an extra-innings walk-off — is a good way to change that course. Ohtani goes deep It took until Friday for Dodgers’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani to hit his first home run of the season, but waiting for the second didn’t take nearly as long. Ohtani put the Dodgers on the board in the top of the third with a solo shot, in a game th